Not applicable.
Two duplicate compact discs containing the following files were submitted with this application and are hereby incorporated into the specification by reference: Genealogy Site Registry Map (Microsoft Word Document, 29.5 KB, Aug. 16, 2003), Genealogy Site Registry Map (Text Document, 7.97 KB, Aug. 16, 2003), Server Database Tables (Microsoft Word Document, 24.0 KB, Aug. 16, 2003), Server Database Tables (Text Document, 4.79 KB, Aug. 16, 2003), Genealogy 3D VRML code sample V013.wrl (8.35 KB, May 15, 2000), BLDHTML1.PRG (16.5 KB, Oct. 13, 1999), BLDHTML2.PRG (5.47 KB, Oct. 13, 1999), BLDKEYO1.PRG (1.65 KB, Oct. 12, 1999), BROWSER.PRG (637 bytes, Oct. 12, 1999), FAM1.PRG 8.45 KB, Oct. 7, 1999), INDIV1.PRG (14.5 KB, Oct. 11, 1999), NOTEEXT.PRG (2.04 KB, Oct. 11, 1999), PART1.PRG (3.95 KB, Oct. 12, 1999), PART2.PRG (3.23 KB, Oct. 13, 1999), STATS001.PRG (2.67 KB, Oct. 13, 1999), STATS002.PRG (1.78 KB, Oct. 13, 1999), and (all of the following of which were created Jun. 10, 2000) CHARGE02 (5.73 KB), DBPUB038 (6.62 KB), DBPUB040 (9.08 KB), DBPUB041 (10.4 KB), DBPUB045 (22.3 KB), DBSRC018 (6.81 KB), DBSRC020 (14.8 KB), DBSRC022 (6.69 KB), DBSRC023 (6.70 KB), DBSRC024 (14.1 KB), DBSRC038 (7.40 KB), DBSRC040 (10.1 KB), DBSRC041 (10.3 KB), DBSRC045 (22.7 KB), DBSRC138 (6.93 KB), DBSRC140 (7.86 KB), DBSRC141 (12.1 KB), DBSRC145 (26.0 KB), DBSRC146 (11.9 KB), DBSRC147 (21.3 KB), DBSRC155 (19.5 KB), DBSRC160 (8.38 KB), DBSRC161 (28.7 KB), DBSRC163 (19.7 KB), DBSRC165 (19.7 KB), DBSRC167 (27.0 KB), DBSRC169 (19.8 KB), DBSRC170 (6.90 KB), DBSRC171 (19.8 KB), DBSRC220 (6.36 KB), DBSRC238 (6.78 KB), DBSRC240 (9.56 KB), DBSRC241 (10.3 KB), DBSRC245 (22.9 KB), DBSRC258 (6.94 KB), DBSRC260 (7.65 KB), DBSRC261 (11.2 KB), DBSRC265 (21.9 KB), DBSRC266 (11.4 KB), DBSRC267 (20.1 KB), HOBADD01 (4.74 KB), HOBAN018 (6.83 KB), HOBAN020 (14.9 KB), IDXADD01 (4.59 KB), INPUT010 (1.24 KB), INPUT012 (3.07 KB), INPUT020 (12.6 KB), LOGBY01 (5.28 KB), LOGHOB01 (3.09 KB), LOGIDX01 (3.05 KB), MENtJIDU1 (4.18 KB), MENUIDX1 (5.93 KB), STATS001 (3.52 KB), WELCOME2 (5.77 KB), WS005 (7.90 KB), WS010 (11.6 KB), WS015 (4.64 KB).
This invention relates to processing of genealogical data. More particularly, this invention relates to a genealogy registry system for collecting, summarizing, indexing, lineage-linking, and displaying genealogical information. Furthermore, this invention also relates to electronic publishing applications using electronic networks.
Today""s worldwide genealogy data records environment can be summarized in general terms as comprising thousands of relatively large public record sets in non-lineage-linked format, mostly on paper or microfilm, plus millions of small collections of lineage-linked names, mostly held by individual persons. Most of these small collections are in paper form, but increasingly are in personal computer (PC) form. These family collections of relatives"" names may be made up of family non-public records, plus extracts from any number of larger public record sets.
There are huge national collections of records, such as the U.S. censuses, that may contain hundreds of millions of names. Other national records include military and immigration records. At the state level, there are the usual birth, marriage, death, and perhaps tax records. At the local or county level, one might find land, burial, and court records.
For the serious genealogy hobbyist or professional, going beyond family records usually means learning to use and access many new sets of records, perhaps finding few, if any, relatives"" names in any one record set. This means there is a huge individual learning curve and much raw record scanning for the small amount of actual data found and used. The learning curve becomes enormous when the researcher must learn a language to trace ancestors"" lives in another country with records in another language.
If the overall goal were to complete all the clerical records processing and name linking for a whole nation or for the entire world, the current process is extremely inefficient. The usual technique for solving this kind of problem is to use specialization to make the workers"" efforts more efficient. In the case of genealogy and the related records complexities, the efficiency improvement rates could be in the hundreds or even thousands of times.
It appears that the most advanced system in the category of a potentially worldwide, lineage-linked system is the Ancestral File (AF) operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. AF stores about 30 million names, most of them linked into families and pedigrees, but only minimal data about each person are held there. Error rates have been estimated to be as high as 30% on names and linking relationships. AF has been available for a decade or more on CD-ROM at family history centers and a few other locations sponsored by the church. Since April 1999, a limited version has been available on the Internet. Although theoretically it could contain data on anyone in the world, AF mostly pertains to the families of the some five million members of the church in the United States. Since it was designed and is intended to support church doctrine and programs, people outside the church are less likely to want to participate, even if it had many more features. A more neutral and sophisticated system is needed.
Ancestral File accepts additions and corrections in paper or diskette form, but cannot be updated directly. A small group of people is responsible for updating the AF database. Due at least in part to these factors, the process is such that there is at least a two-year wait between submitting new data and being able to see the updated version on CD-ROM. Most computer users have come to expect immediate responses to their entries. Waiting two years to find out whether submitted information was accepted correctly by a genealogy system calls for more patience than most people are willing to give. The actual update process is done automatically, with no critical human review. Further, only one version of the data is kept. This means that donors can submit data, wait two years, and then find out that the data were entered incorrectly, were not entered at all, or somebody else""s data were used instead. In the two-year waiting period, the data might have been entered, but later might have been replaced by other data before either version became accessible. This means that the highest quality data can be replaced by inferior data. Obviously, this is not a satisfactory system. It is almost impossible to have significant cooperation or synchronized specialization with such a system.
The most basic needs of a good genealogy registry system are to be able to check whether others have already done the work one wishes to see or do, notify the world of one""s work plans, submit data as they are collected, immediately check the results, and be certain that the data will remain in the database regardless of the activities of others. Following these steps it would also be desirable to be able to look for extensions to the data within work supplied by others and to link data from two or more contributors such that anyone could follow and examine the extensions.
There are many other features of a genealogy registry system that would be very useful, but even the basic features are not currently available. For example, a system is needed that quickly assembles all existing genealogical data and then adds much more to it until all of the available records have been mined and the data integrated. A truly worldwide system would allow for use of multiple languages, perhaps with transliteration and translation to English for universal access. Something as exotic as a three-dimensional virtual reality interface, to enhance the family history data viewing experience by showing all the three-dimensional network reality of family relationships, has never been attempted, perhaps because there is no data source today with the depth and quality required to drive such a feature. Even a much simpler form that displays all known family relationships for one person is not available. This would be a step toward a true three-dimensional network world, but could still be displayed in a more conventional two-dimensional format.
Besides the lack of service and convenience to genealogy hobbyists and professionals, there is also the missed opportunity of planning to enhance the recently completed human genome project. An extensive lineage-linked genealogy system would allow research projects and improvements to health that would be impractical without quick access to hundreds of thousands of family connections.
In view of the foregoing, it will be appreciated that providing a genealogy registry system that meets these and many other deficiencies of current systems would be a significant advancement in the art.
It is an advantage of the present invention to provide a genealogy registry system that permits quick assembly of all existing genealogical data.
It is also an advantage of the invention to provide a genealogy registry system that permits use of multiple languages.
It is another advantage of the invention to provide a genealogy registry system that contains a three-dimensional virtual reality interface for showing all the three-dimensional reality of family relationships.
It is still another advantage of the invention to provide a genealogy registry system that processes old records into a durable digital format, thus preserving old and fragile records.
It is yet another advantage of the invention to provide a genealogy registry system that permits participants to know the state of the system, especially showing what is not contained in the system such that such missing information can be found and added.
It is another advantage of the system to provide a genealogy registry system that permits a specific user to obtain a summary of data that relate to such user.
It is still another advantage of the invention to provide a genealogy registry system that permits two randomly selected individuals to discover if they have a common ancestor.
It is yet another advantage of the invention to provide a genealogy registry system that provides for time-dating of place names and associating places with latitudinal and longitudinal data.
It is a still further advantage of the invention to provide a genealogy registry system that permits associating names with standardized source record references.
It is another advantage of the invention to provide a genealogy registry system that permits incorporation of existing large data collections.
It is still another advantage of the invention to provide a genealogy registry system that permits the easy and automatic absorption and consolidation of large amounts of quality data that exist in Genealogical Data Communications (GEDCOM) format.
It is yet another advantage of the invention to provide a pay-per-view micropayments system such that money is collected from users of the genealogy registry system and part of the collected money is paid to publishers of the data in the form of royalties.
These and other advantages can be addressed by providing a genealogy registry system for collecting, summarizing, indexing, lineage-linking, and displaying all of the world""s genealogy records information on a computer comprising:
(a) a central server database comprising
(i) a plurality of contributors"" data spaces for storing genealogical data in lineage-linked form,
(ii) a submission link space coupled to the plurality of contributors"" data spaces for making and storing links between genealogical data items in each of the plurality of contributors"" data spaces, and
(iii) a third-party link space coupled to the plurality of contributors"" data spaces for making and storing links between genealogical data items between the plurality of contributors"" data spaces;
(b) a normal text and graphics interface coupled to the central server database;
(c) a basic data display coupled to the normal text and graphics interface;
(d) a data status and management mechanism coupled to the normal text and graphics interface for monitoring quantity and quality of data;
(e) a manual keying interface coupled to the central server database for inputting and correction of data; and
(f) a data conversion and automated input coupled to the central server database for converting data into usable format and inputting large data files.
In an illustrative embodiment of the invention, the genealogy registry system further comprises (g) a workstation functions interface coupled to the central server database for converting and consolidating data into usable format. Another illustrative embodiment of the invention the basic data display comprises a mechanism for billing by segment of information displayed. Illustratively, the plurality of contributors"" data spaces has a capacity for storing the names and data on up to 10 billion people. Still further, the system illustratively further comprises a plurality of interactive self-service internet terminals and central servers configured for accepting genealogical data from a plurality of publishers and displaying such genealogical data to a plurality of users. Illustratively, the system is configured for internet transactions to allow updates and review by a plurality of selected persons. The central server database illustratively comprises a structure for storing one or more data items selected from the group consisting of basic identifying data, explanatory text, biographical text, source references, photographs, and images.
In another illustrative embodiment of the invention, the genealogy registry system further comprises a program permitting both minimal data display and update and full detail data display and update. The system also illustratively further comprises a program and data structure configured for storing latitude and longitude indicators for all major identifying events, including birth, death, marriage, and burial, such that tables, maps, and reports can be created for correlating such events with location. Moreover, the system illustratively further comprises a program and data structure configured for storing place names by date and by latitude and longitude. Still further, the system illustratively further comprises a program and data structure for storing medical, genetic, and health history data. Further yet, the system illustratively further comprises a mechanism for permanent storage of assembled data.
In still another illustrative embodiment of the invention, the genealogy registry system further comprises a program and data structure for storing and processing data in a plurality of languages using the language and characters of original records with transliteration and translation to English.
In yet another illustrative embodiment of the invention, the genealogy registry system further comprises a program and data structure for reserving and assigning to a single publisher creation and maintenance of a selected set of names based on at least one of time, place, surname, or record set, and indexes to such assigning for notifying others of current assignments. Illustratively, the system further comprises a program and data structure configured for permitting data submissions by a publisher to be stored independent of submissions by other publishers while being available for integration with other data submissions through a separate system of linking names that is accessible to such other publishers. Further, the system illustratively further comprises a program and data structure for allowing a selected person to link names within or between one or more other publisher""s submissions without changing the underlying data. Still further, the system illustratively further comprises a program and data structure configured for permitting an authorized person to create shadow delete records wherein duplicate names can be removed from search lists and duplicate data can be hidden from users without being deleted from the database.
In still another illustrative embodiment of the invention, the genealogy registry system further comprises a program for providing summaries by surname and oldest birth date linked to a user or nearest relative thereof. Illustratively, the genealogy registry system further comprises a program for identifying a closest common ancestor, if any, for two randomly selected people. Further, the system illustratively further comprises a program for displaying all relationships for a selected person. Moreover, the system illustratively further comprises a read-only virtual reality user interface configured for permitting a user or group of users to receive immediate visual and aural access to the data in the database, wherein the data appear as objects in a three-dimensional world with which the user can interact. Still further, the system illustratively further comprises a virtual reality user interface configured for permitting a user or group of users to receive immediate visual and aural access to the data in the database, wherein the data appear as objects in a three-dimensional world with which the user can interact, and whereby an authorized user can modify the database.
Another illustrative embodiment of the genealogy registry system further comprises a mechanism configured for allowing a publisher or other authorized person to examine the database for assessing completeness of coverage of a selected time, place, surname, or record set such that the publisher can discover what data are in the database and what data are missing. The system also illustratively further comprises first-level indexes to names and source records such that measures of population and record coverage can be estimated; second-level cross references between source records and names such that measures of accuracy and duplication can be applied to the data, and measures of completeness of coverage of a record set can be estimated, and cross indexing can be accomplished between multiple versions or copies of the same record set; and third-level cross references of source-to-dissimilar-source records such that the database can supply consolidated cross reference indexes among multiple record sources linked through specific people.
Still another illustrative embodiment of the genealogy registry system further comprises a program for automatic conversion of a user""s lineage-linked data into a format suitable for automatic update of the database over the Internet. The system illustratively further comprises a program and data structure configured for capturing, converting, and consolidating lineage-linked genealogy data collections stored for public view on the Internet. Illustratively, the lineage-linked data collections are automatically analyzed and divided into trees of interconnected names. Further, the genealogy registry system illustratively further comprises a program configured for analyzing incoming lineage-linked data collections for consolidation with existing data, eliminating duplicates, and finding and displaying missing linkages in incomplete pedigrees. Still further, the system illustratively further comprises a program and data structure configured for supporting automated mass consolidation of unlinked source records into multi-generation lineage-linked form. The system also illustratively further comprises a program and data structure configured for converting data from Ancestral File and International Genealogical Index into a format compatible with the present system and for online review and correcting of such data. Further, the system illustratively further comprises a program and data structure configured for automated comparison of overlapping lineage-linked genealogy files and removal of duplicates and merging of data. Still further, the system illustratively further comprises a program and data structure for coding of confidence levels or accuracy indicators on data elements selected from the group consisting of birth dates, birth places, and relationship links.
Another illustrative embodiment of the genealogy registry system further comprises a program and data structure configured for accounting of royalty payments to publishers of data based on use of such data and charging user fees to users of such data. The parameters for royalty payments and user fees can illustratively be varied according to user, publisher, name, and data element. Illustratively, the system further comprises a program and data structure configured for allowing a user to separately select for viewing each item of data about a name. The system illuustratively further comprises a program and data structure configured for billing a user only once for each item of data viewed, regardless of the number of times the item is viewed. Moreover, the system illustratively further comprises a program and data structure configured for controlling a number of names accessed per unit time.
In yet another illustrative embodiment of the invention, the genealogy registry system further comprises a program and data structure configured for producing a copy of the central server database wherein said copy is configured such that data quality parameters can be different than for the central server database. Illustratively, users of the copy are billed at a different rate than are users of the central server database.
Another illustrative embodiment of the invention illustratively further comprises a program and database structure configured for producing a research coordination report for identifying areas of user interest based on user name selection and fee payment patterns and for facilitating research planning and contracting.
Still another illustrative embodiment of the genealogy registry system further comprises a program and data structure configured for matching one or more publishers of research data with one or more users of such data. In such embodiment, one or more publishers can announce and register research plans and seek funding commitments, and one or more users can make such funding commitments.
A method for collecting, summarizing, indexing, lineage-linking, and displaying genealogical records information comprises:
(a) providing a genealogy registry system on a computer comprising:
(i) a central server database comprising
(1) a plurality of contributors"" data spaces for storing genealogical data in lineage-linked form,
(2) a submission link space coupled to the plurality of contributors"" data spaces for making and storing links between genealogical data items in each of the plurality of contributors"" data spaces, and
(3) a third-party link space coupled to the plurality of contributors"" data spaces for making and storing links between genealogical data items between the plurality of contributors"" data spaces,
(ii) a normal text and graphics interface coupled to the central server database,
(iii) a basic data display coupled to the normal text and graphics interface,
(iv) a data status and management mechanism coupled to the normal text and graphics interface for monitoring quantity and quality of data,
(v) a manual keying interface coupled to the central server database for inputting and correction of data, and
(vi) a data conversion and automated input coupled to the central server database for converting data into usable format and inputting large data files, and storing genealogical data on the central server database in lineage-linked form;
(b) establishing links between genealogical data items; and
(c) displaying genealogical data in response to a request for data and billing a user for data displayed in response to the request.
A method for publishing lineage-linked genealogical data using a computer comprises:
(a) receiving and storing lineage-linked genealogical data from a publisher;
(b) inputting into the computer a payment identifier specifying a credit card account associated with a user;
(c) permitting the user to access lineage-linked genealogical data stored in the computer;
(d) charging the credit card account on a pay-per-view basis according to lineage-linked genealogical data accessed by the user; and
(e) crediting a royalty payment to the publisher correlated with charges to the user for accessing lineage-linked genealogical data received from the publisher.